We are witnessing something truly special...

We are witnessing something truly special with this Rangers team right now as they are all in on this season. They are doing things that we have not seen from a Rangers team in years and there's one thing in particular that is setting this group of Rangers players apart from even Rangers teams we've seen in recent memory and we're going to break down what analysts are saying, what the advanced analytics are saying. Head coach Mike Sullivan had some very interesting comments about why this team is finding success like this so early in this season and the fan base is absolutely fired up. Guys, this team is for real. We've talked about it throughout the summer. This team is ready and they are primed and there is one thing and we're going to break it down in this video that does set them apart and it's very exciting and it's something that is sustainable. We're going to break that all down and much more in this episode of Rangers Digest but before we get into all of that a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. Large percentage of you guys who watch these videos are not subscribed to the channel so if you want to stay up to date with everything that's happening with the Rangers make sure to hit that subscribe button. I got daily updates on everything that's happening with the team every single day here on the channel and I am giving away a jersey here to one lucky subscriber for whatever comes first either 15,000 subscribers or the Rangers make the playoffs and let me tell you this Rangers team they are making the playoffs and there's one thing that sets them apart. One thing that sets them apart this season. They are all in. They are all bought in. What this man right here Mike Sullivan is selling they have bought it. All of them. All of them. They are playing great. Are some of the games tight? Yes. Was that first game against the Bruins a stinker? Yes. Has everything since then been awesome? Yes. They're playing the game the right way. They're four checking hard. They're playing physical. Mika's throwing hits like this. They are playing really well and Mika I want to talk about him later in the video. Such a versatile player. He can really play into any system that you put forth. He's not a you know super one-dimensional player but one thing that I absolutely love is ladies and gentlemen NFSG is a place to win again. Check out some of these stats. So four straight wins. They're 4-1-0 now. First game against the Bruins was an absolute stinker They're 3-0-0 at home now. Their first start like that since 2009-2010. Since that season. So it's been what is that like 16 years I guess or 16 seasons. That's insane. Okay so great start at home. Flawless at home so far. Third home win already. It took them until December 2nd to get their third home win last season. Now they were horrible last season. They couldn't score period but mostly at home. They were awful. Now they have more scoring options and they're just playing the right way. They're all bought into the system. You can see it. They're executing upon it. They're playing hard. They're forechecking hard and the line combinations that they have right now are going. They're working for them man. This is looking really good. I'm excited and I'm mostly excited because everything that I saw working on paper is happening before our eyes and that is beautiful when that happens. It is so beautiful and how can you not love what's going on right now. I mean the vibes are the highest that like that they've had in years. Years. The last two seasons have just been. Did anyone really watch most of the games last year? There's no way. If you say yes you're lying right. Like they were awful to watch. So Mika Zabanijad has been playing great but Alexey Lafreniere made it his game yesterday. Obviously the hat trick. Two of them are not empty netters but his first goal was was great. Off the rush right with a lot of confidence. Great shot but he's just playing very well. He's forechecking well. He's creating opportunities for his teammates. Him and Gabe Perot are playing well and of course Mika in the center there. He's generating a lot of chances and a great snipe made it two nothing for the Rangers there. Of course the Islanders came back and tied it up but then you break through again right and you continue to break through. You get your empty netters and you just win the game. You just find a way to do it and they're playing much better defensively. Now a lot of people are saying you know and I've the point too. Since Panarin was traded Lafreniere has really been freed up. He's playing a lot better right. Maybe that was the secret sauce. The secret sauce this season is that they're all bought into the system first of all and second of all their defense core is not awful right. They added a lot of really good pieces to the defense core and Albert Schmitz of course who's played really really well again last night. So I'm really excited to see what's happening but let me pose the question to you guys out there. Is Lafreniere officially taking the next step? He started the season a little bit quiet all right. A little bit quiet. I want to bring this up because his biggest problem always has been consistency right. So what I want to see because you're already kind of seeing it early this season. Somewhat quiet in terms of point production. Somewhat the first couple of games. Then the last three games has been turning it on. So I want to see less patches of this like we've seen throughout his entire career and more consistent play. But what I will say is you know five games played has five points right. So technically point of game player right which is great. He ended last season the second half as a point of game player right. It was very impressive. So if he keeps this up and he's got to do it consistently that's the biggest thing that's always been his problem. We could be looking at an 80 to 90 point Alexi Lafreniere. I said during the summer I think he can be at least an 80 point player now with his ice time going up. You can see this too even from the start of the season the first couple games to now his ice time has gone up in the last three games. But with his ice time going up with power play one and I want to get the power play one in a second too. Getting more ice time he should be able to in theory generate more point production. So that's great. Obviously got the hat trick yesterday. Two of the goals were on an empty net so shooting percentages like through the roof right now. But no that was fun to see. A couple hats came down too and a 5-2 win over the Islanders. I had no idea what was going to happen last night because you know I thought they did a good job shutting down Matthew Schaefer as well. He really you know he got that one shot off the post but you know they really shut him down. They were four checking really well. There was a lot to like about that game. There's a lot to like about the Rangers right now in general. This is really really good. So Sullivan spoke out about Lafreniere. He said he's at his best when he has the puck on his stick and he really wasn't able to do that with some of the personnel on the team before right. When you look this year it's like hey you're on the top line. You're a gay pro. Like we need you to carry the puck. We need you to start making plays and he's doing well. He's doing well. So I'm excited to continue to see if he can put it together consistently this season over the course of 84 games. And Lafreniere spoke out too and he said I feel like we're playing winning hockey especially with the lead and it's helped us a lot. And they are. They're all bought into the system man. They are all bought into it right now. You can see they're executing upon what they need to and I'm really excited. Again I keep saying it like the vibes are high. The vibes have not been this high in a long time. And if you take a look at you know Lafreniere in the last couple of seasons you know he's notoriously like you know he had the one really good season. He tied his um you know career high last year with that second half where he was a pointed game player. But he's only ever reached 57 points. He's up to 5 and 5 right now this season. I think he's gonna this is gonna be a career year for Alexi Lafreniere. Again don't look at the shooting percentage. He has it's 27% because he scored two empty netters. But I think he's poised to have his best season ever this season. So we'll see how it plays out. Already up to three goals. His career high is 28. I think he can score 30 and I think he can get to 80 points. So let's see. Let's see what Lafreniere can do. Can he take it to the next level? I think yes. I think he already is. I think he's already shown at the end of last year he is. He needs to continue to do it and it needs to be on a consistent basis. And then uh you know everything should be okay. Another guy I want to talk about is Oliver Bjorkstrand. He was moved to the fourth line. Ty Cartier was moved to the second line. He is making the most of his minutes. He looked really good last night as well with a couple the first shot was unbelievable and that again was Lafreniere opening that up for Bjorkstrand. So you know he went out and said whatever minutes line you're on you got to step up and do your part. You got to you know bring it every single night and he did that yesterday. Two goals in a big win. He looks really good as well in obviously the ice time has dramatically come down for him because of being moved to the fourth line. But finds himself in an opportunity last night where he made the most of his minutes. So if he can offer that and I saw some Tampa Bay Lightning fans on uh Twitter as well saying uh hey he was really good at being wide open last year too with the Lightning and he was you know a couple of those spots last night was. But making the most of his minutes and uh if you can get that from a fourth liner and you know sometimes on you know sprinkled in on the special teams and stuff like that they'll they'll be okay. And speaking of special teams in the power play like I mentioned I want to get it to this from Johnny Lazarus. Something to note on the power play in the power play unit. Power play 2 has outscored power play 1 through the first five games. Power play 2 has scored two goals and has had one taken back due to an offside. Gabe Perreault had the primary assist on two of the goals and the secondary one on one called back. Power play 1 has converted once on Mika's goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning last week at home. As a team they're 3 for 14 on the season 21% which is 17th best in the NHL right now. Maybe it's time to shake it up a little bit on the power play. I mean that's listen if your power play is that poor at this point 3 for 14 uh which like it's not even that bad I guess they're like literally middle of the league middle of the pack. But if you can get that up a little bit you should be winning even more games and maybe even more handedly because they're playing well and they're finding a way to win. So that's something to note too that that's something that can definitely be improved upon but even without that they are still winning games and you know even Islanders fans are really starting to take notice on that too right so um you know speaking of Gabe Perreault uh and here you can see from Islanders fan too credit to them for their four check tonight the Islanders simply had no answers and there's been a couple teams that have said that as well about the uh the Rangers a four check four check and Rangers that wasn't even the same sentence for years so that's exciting uh Gabe Perreault wanted to talk about Gabe Perreault last couple games too his ice time start slowly going up too Johnny Lazarus how good he's been uh you know on the power play too uh and just in general on the top line he's just looking more comfortable in on the four check there was a couple times last night where I'm like oh my goodness this guy's just hounding the puck him and Lafreniere right and yeah I just love to see that stuff I love to see that so um you know from the first two games to the last couple you know he's gonna continue to find his game he's gonna continue to put up some points I'm not worried about this team at all I have to be honest I think there's things they can improve on and I think that's great because they've started so strong but I think their their attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck their four check and then of course having Igor back there and how good Dylan Garanz played so far in his NHL appearances um how can you not feel good about this team one last guy I wanted to talk about uh before we wrap up here is Mika Zvanijad man five points in five games so far this season he's been really good I feel like he's such a versatile player you can put him in any type of system and he's going to figure out his game in that system and I feel like he's doing that yet again here with Mike Sullivan and uh Mike Sullivan systems really coming to fruition I think with this team this year this year I I feel like you can see it and kind of more how they want to play one thing that I was talking about on the channel a couple years ago if you've been around for a while is when Peter Laviolette was here especially at the end there was no structure to this team they had no structure at all and they kept talking about it right as if it did exist and there was no structure and then last year you have a lot of turnover there's a lot of bodies out the door some newer players in and they're trying to find their way but the player personnel wasn't there and it looked ugly I feel like you have a lot you know much better players this season you went out and got a couple on the back end and Dursey and Patterson Schmitz is a great young player and the forward group is a lot better and have some chemistry built in from the end of last year so now you're seeing the fruits of that right like everything's slowly coming together and again Mika's been great and he's been great in the faceoff dot too by the way so excited to see how this progresses but I will leave this to you guys here at the end what do you think is the biggest difference and what feels the most different to you so far this season is it closing out games with a lead and not collapsing Mika was talking about that uh you know yesterday as well he said we're playing winning hockey we're not folding like we used to is it that is it the fact that they have more scoring options like you know Dorofeev now which you know at the end of last season that top line was good but they didn't have a Dorofeev Panarin was gone that type of stuff right so is it the fact that they have some more scoring options that third line you know at times the deployment they're getting absolutely wrecked but you know in theory as the season goes on you'll see a little bit more out of them or is it just having so many young players that have so much promise on the team Gabe Perot and Albert Schmitz because this team notoriously for years not known for developing players and not known for having younger players on the team necessarily or performing on the team right so what feels the most different to you guys let me know in the comments below because to me it's a little bit of a combination of everything but what feels different the most to me not noted here really I guess it can kind of play into a here is they are all bought in they're all bought into the system they're all on the same page and that is a recipe for success if you have alignment through your entire team through your organization you can win in this league